You will learn in this article about of youth baseball tip for after choking. Not sure what to say or do when your child is upset after making a mistake or choking?
Check out this video for youth baseball tips to help your athlete after choking:
This is my story of choking during an important baseball game…
I remember very well a baseball game I played when I was 14. It was a late-season game where we were in the hunt for a playoff berth and all day I was in a constant state of excitement during school trying to make the clock go faster.
The bell rang, I dashed home, got my uniform on and was the first player at the field, pumped and ready to go!
We were playing the best team in the league and everyone was jazzed up and ready to give it everything we had. Our team got along very well and we felt like a band of brothers out there to take down some giants…literally!
The game was close all the way through and every pitch mattered as much to us as the 7th game of the World Series. In the dugout, it was too suspenseful to sit and many of us paced or chewed sunflower seeds to break the tension. The lead changed hands every inning as the pressure built.
Then came my turn…It was late in the game and I went up to bat with 2 outs and 2 runners on base and we were down by 1 run. As I stepped into the box and looked at my team cheering me on, I could feel my legs trembling and my teeth literally chattering. Everybody was counting on me right then and there. It seemed like the whole world was watching and I was wearing a 50 pound weight around my neck.
…and I hit a feeble grounder to end the inning and our chances for a win.
I was devastated.
No amount of “it’s OK Craig, we’ll get ‘em next time” encouragement would help. I went home with a sickness in my gut from the feelings of disappointing everyone. I saw it on their faces that day and I carried those visions and that nausea home with me.
For years after that, I would have a nightmare about such a pressure situation and it always ended with me hitting the ball and getting thrown out at first base because I’m running in slow motion through quicksand!
What about you? Can you remember a time when you felt you disappointed or let down your parents, your teammates or your coach? How did that feel for you? How long did that disappointment last?
I regularly work with adults who point to such failures in their youth as the beginnings of habitual negative thinking.
Don’t let this happen to your athlete.
What can you do about it? What’s the healthiest way to deal with this so the athlete learns from and becomes more mentally tough from it?
The best thing a parent or other supporter of an athlete can do is to allow the athlete to feel the disappointment and express it. When you sense your athlete is ready for it, then pour on the cheerleading and build her back up.
Mental toughness comes from bouncing back from difficulty. Give your athlete the perspective that this “failure” or mistake is only going to make her a better player in the long run…if she wants it to and it is a choice to make.
Also, make sure you let her know that you believe in her ability to come back stronger and smarter next time. Reminder her of what she is good at.
Use age appropriate language knowing that the younger athletes usually recover quicker but require more sympathy. The key for you as a parent or coach is to put aside your own disappointment and ask yourself what your athlete really needs right now to grow from the experience.
It’s not about you, it’s about them!
Craig Sigl